Is This Tree Big Enough?

Here is a picture of a 30' tall Live Oak my company planted this spring. The tree was in a 60" box. I had planted 48" box tree's before that were 22' tall so it wasn't that my first time handling big stuff. The Skytrac lift we used to plant the tree weighed 10,000 lbs. The tree was about 5,000 lbs.

We jackhammered several tons of rock out of the hole. Thank goodness we cover our azz with jackhammer clauses. The rock added two grand to the bill and made even more money.

It was dry as hell for months before we planted and then it rained just days before planting time. I almost got the Skytrac stuck. I had to set the tree down to get unstuck and pick it up from a different angle. I don't even want to think how much money it would cost to get a 10,000 pound Skytrac pulled out.

The tree cost us $3200 and retailed for $6495. We planted four other 36" box tree's the same day. We had a smaller Bobcat 190T tracked loader at the site to use on the smaller tree's. All in all it was a nice little $17,000 project.

That is big. When Joes went in along town lake we had Ted's put in a few for us. I still can't believe his guys go out and dig those trees and bring them to his east austin lot. But yours was bigger I think we paid $5K.

That is big. When Joes went in along town lake we had Ted's put in a few for us. I still can't believe his guys go out and dig those trees and bring them to his east austin lot. But yours was bigger I think we paid $5K.

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The tree came from Glen Flora. Have you ever had Pedro's Tree's do any installs for you? I bet Pedro would give you a better price.

Pedro usually has the best B&B Mountain Laurels in town as well. His price was around $40 a foot. For bigger Mtn Laurels it's was about $75 a foot. I've purchased two ten footers in the past that were about 1500 lbs.

The TNLA show is coming up in about three weeks. You'll see tree growers Glen Flora, Peerless Farms, Rancho Encino, Alfaro's, and several palm tree vendors who will have booths with 20-30' tall planting material inside the convention center.

I can't find the picture I took of the huge Skytrak I used that day but here are some other pics. The Skytrak in these pictures is a 5000 lb capacity with about a 28' boom. The boom on the bigger Skytrak can go out about 50'.

Great pics, Plantscapes... wish I could find container trees that big (or even a bit smaller) around here. Everything gets spaded once it's that large. Not like there's a place you can go and pick them out like your first pic.

--Specializing in Professional Landscape Installations and Enhancements--